Hong Kong — Paola's Blog

Cape D’Aguilar. Every Lighthouse Has a Story to Tell

Hong Kong's southernmost area, past the refined Repulse Bay and the quaint Stanley Village, is a fascinating sequence of bays, beaches and unspoilt nature. Heading towards Big Wave Bay, a surfing destination, there is a roundabout where a road sign points east, to “Cape d'Aguilar”.

For years, I have been charmed by this name, which made me imagine a lonely and mysterious place, even more so as it is a restricted area, accessible by taxis only or walking 4 kilometres on a pleasant road that runs alongside the sea, not particularly busy, especially on weekdays.

Hong KongPaola CaronniFebruary 27, 2021Cape D'Aguilar, Flagstaff House, L.M. Stedman, Opium Wards, Sir George Charles D'Aguilar, Samuel T. Coleridge, Swire Institute of Marine Science, Virginia WoolfComment

Tai O, the Fishing Village Out of Time.

Some have defined Tai O as a small "Venice of the East". To me, it stirred other memories instead. There are places that immediately take us back to others, to which we feel we belong. We recognize them as ours, we love them, we always want to return. We develop a special and sometimes inexplicable 'connecction’, and to them we reserve magical and personal moments. Other times, we need to talk about, to write about these places because, as Joan Didion said, 'A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively...'

Hong Kong, TravelsPaola CaronniMarch 13, 2020Joan Didion, Tai O, Tai O Heritage HotelComment